The travel souvenirs I bring home these days tend to be edible. Coffee from Paris, wine from Spain, biscuits discovered in a supermarket. They’re little things that keep a trip alive long after I’ve returned. And according to new research from GetYourGuide, I’m far from alone in embracing food as a way to experience the world.
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There’s a familiar scene in our house on a lazy Saturday morning. The laptop is open, we’re checking flights on Skyscanner, watching travel videos on YouTube and trying to decide where to go next. Quite often, we’re enjoying coffee, biscuits or chocolates brought home from our last adventure while we do it. It’s become one of my favourite little travel rituals, enjoying something from somewhere we’ve already visited while getting excited about the next trip.
As I’ve travelled more over the years, I’ve gradually stopped buying traditional souvenirs. Collecting something from every destination became a bit impractical, and I found myself much more interested in bringing home things I could actually enjoy. Coffee, chocolates, biscuits, local specialities and the occasional bottle of wine have gradually replaced the usual keepsakes.
It’s interesting to see that this growing interest in experiencing destinations through food is part of a much bigger trend. New research from GetYourGuide has introduced the term Biteseeing, describing the increasing popularity of food-focused travel. According to its November 2026 findings, 79% of respondents would travel specifically for regional food experiences, while bookings for food experiences on GetYourGuide have increased by 47% year on year.
For me, food has always been about more than finding somewhere nice to eat. It’s a way of getting to know a place, discovering the little differences between cultures and, quite often, bringing those memories home. Before my recent Rome trip I heavily researched all the spots I wanted to eat at and TikTok really appreciated this. Over 8,300 of you liked this video and over 7,000 saved it!
From Fridge Magnets to French Chocolates
I’ve just returned from a weekend in Paris, and my bag was full of the usual suspects: chocolates, biscuits, bread and coffee. Every time I visit, I make a point of heading into Monoprix to stock up on a few favourites. I love browsing the shelves, finding different products and picking up things we don’t normally get at home.
I’ve learned over the years that fresh bakery treats don’t always travel particularly well, so most of what I bring back tends to have a longer shelf life. It doesn’t need to be expensive or particularly special, either. Sometimes a packet of biscuits or a bag of coffee from a supermarket is enough to remind me of a lovely weekend away.
And when we’re sitting at home a few weeks later, enjoying those treats while planning another trip, it feels like we’ve brought a little bit of the holiday back with us. I get far more enjoyment from that than I ever did from collecting keepsakes.
How Food Brings Back Travel Memories
One thing I’ve always loved about travelling is discovering how different countries put their own twist on familiar foods. Take a Spanish napolitana and a French pain au chocolat, for example, or a German Berliner and a Polish Pączek. They’re similar ideas, but each has its own character, and I love discovering those little differences when visiting somewhere new.
It’s part of the fun of travelling. Finding out what people eat, trying regional specialities and experiencing things that might be completely ordinary to someone who lives there but feel new and exciting to you. And sometimes those flavours stay with you for years.
I remember visiting Norah’s Palace in Belfast after my trip to Jordan. I ordered some really good hummus and pita, and immediately I was thinking about the food I’d enjoyed in Amman. More recently, I had some incredibly authentic mushroom tacos in Valencia. The melted cheese and sauce reminded me so much of what I’d eaten in Mexico City that I was instantly transported back to that trip.
That’s one of my favourite things about food. You can be sitting in a restaurant thousands of miles from somewhere you’ve visited, and one familiar flavour suddenly brings back memories of a completely different adventure. It might be months or even years later, but you can still remember that first taste.
The Rise of Biteseeing: Why Travellers Are Embracing Food Tourism
The GetYourGuide research offers an interesting insight into how travellers are choosing to experience destinations. In a survey of 1,252 adults across the UK, France, Germany and Italy, 79% said they would travel for regional food experiences. The company also reported that food experience bookings on its platform grew by 47% year on year, compared with 16% growth for cultural and historical attractions.
But the statistic I found most relatable was that 84% of respondents expressed an interest in visiting grocery shops, markets and food stalls.
That one made me smile, because if there’s one thing I absolutely love doing when I’m travelling, it’s visiting a supermarket.
What I find interesting about this trend is that food tourism doesn’t have to mean fine dining or elaborate tasting menus. It can be something as ordinary as exploring a local market, trying a regional pastry or picking up ingredients you’ve never cooked with before. These everyday experiences can tell you just as much about a destination as a visit to a famous restaurant.
You can read the full GetYourGuide Biteseeing research here.
Why I Love Visiting Supermarkets Abroad
I genuinely love grocery shopping in Spain. Mercadona and Consum are two of my regular stops, and I can happily spend ages wandering around looking at all the different products. It’s partly about finding things we can’t easily get at home, but I also just enjoy seeing what’s available. Even something as simple as tomate rallado, the grated tomato that’s so popular in Spain, is enough to get me excited.
As a vegetarian, I’m always interested in discovering different products and ingredients too. The vegetarian selections I’ve found in Spanish supermarkets have been brilliant, particularly the fresh seitan in Consum. It’s one of those things I always look forward to finding when I’m back in Spain.
When we’re travelling for a longer period and staying somewhere with a kitchen, I really enjoy picking up ingredients and cooking a few meals ourselves. It certainly helps keep costs down, but it’s also something I genuinely enjoy doing. There’s something lovely about returning from a day exploring, opening a bottle of regional wine and cooking dinner with ingredients you’ve picked up locally.
On recent trips to Gran Canaria and Valencia, I’ve also enjoyed discovering regional wines and local food. I love tasting things in the places they’re from, whether that’s sitting down for a meal or trying a wine produced in the surrounding region. Those little experiences add another dimension to a trip, and they don’t always involve spending lots of money.
How a Food Tasting Changed the Way I Saw Gran Canaria
One of my favourite food experiences recently was visiting Finca La Laja, home to Bodega Los Berrazales in Gran Canaria’s beautiful Agaete Valley. We had the opportunity to sample local wines, coffee, cheeses and preserves, but what made the visit particularly memorable was learning more about how the island’s unique microclimates influence what can be grown there.
Gran Canaria is an island of incredible contrasts, and I’d already fallen in love with its landscapes. But discovering how coffee, grapes and tropical fruits can thrive in the Agaete Valley gave me an entirely new appreciation for its geography. We weren’t just tasting the finished products; we were learning about the conditions that make growing them possible, and how much of the island’s character is reflected in its food.
It’s exactly the kind of experience that makes the idea of Biteseeing so appealing to me. We left with a better understanding of somewhere we’d already enjoyed exploring, all through a few glasses of wine, some local coffee and a selection of delicious things to eat. It’s one of those experiences that adds another layer to a destination, and I’d happily make time for something similar on future trips.
Making Food Experiences Part of Your Travels
One thing I particularly like about the Biteseeing trend is how accessible it can be. You don’t need to spend a fortune or arrange your entire itinerary around food experiences to enjoy discovering local flavours.
Some of my favourite discoveries have happened simply by wandering around and seeing what’s available. A market tucked away on a side street, an unfamiliar pastry in a bakery or a local wine I might never have tried otherwise. Sometimes it’s the things you stumble across that end up being the most memorable.
Of course, there are also times when a more organised experience can be worthwhile. A guided food market tour can introduce you to ingredients and specialities you might otherwise overlook, while visiting a vineyard or joining a cooking class can give you a better understanding of a region’s traditions.
These experiences can work particularly well on a short break, too. A food tour, wine tasting or cooking class can often fit into a morning or afternoon, leaving plenty of time for everything else you want to see and do.
If you’re looking for inspiration, you can explore food tours, wine tastings, cooking classes and other local experiences through GetYourGuide. There are plenty of ways to discover a destination through its food, whether you prefer exploring independently or having somebody local show you around.
5 Food Experiences to Try on Your Next Trip
If all this talk of food has made you hungry for your next adventure, I’ve picked out five experiences on GetYourGuide that caught my eye. From tasting local wines in Spain to discovering how vanilla is grown in Tenerife, these are lovely ways to get to know a destination beyond the usual sightseeing. And there’s even one that combines a hot air balloon adventure with breakfast in Mexico!
1. Gran Canaria: Discover the Tastes of the Island
After our visit to Finca La Laja in the Agaete Valley, I came away with a completely new appreciation for Gran Canaria’s food and drink. There’s so much more to the island than its beaches, and exploring local flavours is a brilliant way to discover that. If you’re planning a visit, why not add a tasting experience to your itinerary and discover another side of Gran Canaria?
2. Valencia: Get to Know the Local Wines
Valencia is one of those cities where you can fill your days with beautiful architecture, neighbourhood cafés and incredible food, but there’s also a fantastic wine culture to discover. I really enjoyed exploring regional wines during my travels in the area, and a guided tasting is a great opportunity to learn more about the different varieties and traditions behind them. A lovely addition to a Valencia city break.
3. Belfast: Discover the City Through Its Food
You don’t always need to travel far to discover something new! Belfast has a brilliant food scene, and a guided food tour is a different way to get to know the city. Whether you’re visiting for a weekend or you’ve lived here for years, exploring the local flavours and the stories behind them sounds like a great way to spend a few hours. The Original Belfast Food Tour is definitely one to consider.
4. Tenerife: Explore a Food Forest and Vanilla Plantation
This is exactly the sort of unusual experience that gets me excited about travelling. Tenerife’s landscapes and growing conditions make it a fascinating place to discover where different ingredients come from, and the opportunity to explore a food forest and learn about vanilla cultivation really caught my attention. It’s a great example of Biteseeing being about much more than simply sitting down for a meal.
5. Mexico: Hot Air Balloon Views and Breakfast with Locals
Now this is a combination I can get behind! Imagine starting your morning with a hot air balloon experience around the extraordinary archaeological landscape of Teotihuacán, followed by the opportunity to enjoy breakfast with locals. Mexico is somewhere I have fantastic food memories from already, and I love the idea of combining such a memorable adventure with a chance to experience local hospitality and food traditions.
Whether it’s a local wine tasting, a food market or something completely different, I love how these experiences can add another dimension to a trip. You might even discover a flavour that stays with you long after you’ve returned home.
Affiliate disclosure: These GetYourGuide booking widgets contain affiliate links. I may earn a commission if you book through them, at no additional cost to you. Prices and availability depend on your selected dates.
What I Look for When Bringing Food Home
Over the years, I’ve developed a few habits that make bringing home food from my travels a little easier. Coffee is nearly always a good choice because it’s easy to pack, keeps well and gives you something to enjoy long after the trip. Chocolates, biscuits and other sweet treats are favourites too, particularly when I find something that’s difficult to get at home.
I also enjoy bringing home regional ingredients that I can use in my own cooking. It’s a lovely way to recreate a flavour or dish I’ve enjoyed while travelling, even if my attempt doesn’t always turn out quite as well as the original!
The main thing I’ve learned is to be realistic about what will survive the journey, especially when travelling with hand luggage. Fresh pastries and delicate bakery items might be tempting, but they’re not always the most practical things to bring back. I tend to stick with well-packaged, non-perishable products and make sure anything I’m bringing home is permitted under the relevant customs rules.
You really don’t need to spend much, either. Some of my favourite things have come straight from an ordinary supermarket, and that’s part of what makes it so enjoyable.
Sometimes the Best Souvenirs Aren’t Things You Keep Forever
I completely understand why people collect traditional souvenirs. For some, it’s fridge magnets from every country. For others, it’s artwork, postcards or something handmade that reminds them of a particular place. There’s no right or wrong way to remember your travels, and I certainly wouldn’t rule out buying something special if I came across it.
I’ve just found that, as the number of places I’ve visited has grown, my habits have changed. These days, I’m more interested in the experiences themselves and the little things that help me remember them. A good coffee, a familiar flavour or something delicious discovered in a supermarket can bring back memories in a way I never really expected.
And sometimes I don’t even need to have brought anything home. All it takes is a plate of hummus or some really good tacos, and suddenly I’m remembering a completely different adventure. That’s one of my favourite things about travelling. The places you visit become part of your experiences, your tastes and the memories you carry with you.
And if I can enjoy a few chocolates from Paris while planning the next adventure on a Saturday morning, even better.
Research source: GetYourGuide, Biteseeing: The New Sightseeing, November 2026. Survey findings reflect respondents’ stated interests, while booking growth figures relate to GetYourGuide’s platform.
Updated: 9 November 2026
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